Kaplan: How a ‘really big fantasy baseball nerd’ became Jeff Luhnow’s right-hand man – The Athletic

An interesting piece on one of the many smart people working in the Astros front office, Brandon Taubman.

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani faces Clayton Kershaw

Sorry, this isn’t smack talk.

“I could care less now,” Kershaw said when asked if he was excited to face Ohtani. “He didn’t pick us. Good luck to him.”

Old school? Or innovative? Rays eyeing four-man rotation for full season

Starters are pitching less innings than ever. This makes a lot of sense to me.

The Rays are planning more than just an early-season experiment with a four-man rotation.

Manager Kevin Cash said today they are looking to stick with that plan for the full season – using four starters on a regular basis and filling in on the fifth day with the multi-inning relievers they will have in their bullpen.

The four starters to begin the season are set to be Chris Archer, Blake Snell, Nathan Eovaldi and ...

Latest on Arrieta, Moustakas, Holland

It will be interesting to see if he can pull a rabbit out of his butt on these guys.

Under fire, baseball union may add legal firepower | NBC Sports Boston

This. The MLBPA has sold out younger players (including amateur, minor leaguers, and 1-3 year players) and made them even cheaper and more valuable. The middle class is now paying the price for their greedy, short-sighted, and simplistic thinking.

So the union surrendered the extra year. And then . . .

“Starting in the 1986 offseason, I started getting calls from all of these mid-level free agents,” said Orza. “[Guys] who aren’t getting offers, who aren’t getting jobs. Who eventually ...

When Winter Never Ends

Great read.

DAY 1: FEB. 4, 2018

“There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord.”
—Musashi Miyamoto (circa 1584-1645), samurai and artist

Ichiro Suzuki steps out of the cold into the small restaurant that serves him dinner most nights. It’s winter in Kobe, Japan, where he once played professional baseball and where he comes during the offseason to train. His wife, Yumiko, is back home in Seattle. He is here alone, free from the ...

Spring Training showings to get excited about

I guess it’s better than the alternative.

1. Matt Harvey, RHP, Mets (2 starts, 5 IP, 1 ER, 3 K)
Some wondered if Harvey would even get this far. After the past couple of years, no one knew what he was still capable of. At this point, the right-hander has given the Mets every reason for optimism. Harvey could be the difference between the Mets making and missing the playoffs. Or he could be dealt at the Trade Deadline.

2. Matt Kemp, OF, Dodgers (.313 BA, 3 HR, 1.228 OPS, 16 AB)
Wait, what? ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-7-2018

Washington Times, March 7, 1918:

Now that Dave Robertson has decided to retire from baseball, it is a certainty that Manager McGraw will use Ross Young [sic] in right field this season.
...
He is a wide, heavy swinger, with a good eye, and is fleet of foot. Ever since Young has been playing professional ball he has never hit under .300, and he has played in several minor leagues.

Ross Youngs hit .145 in 55 at-bats for the 1914 Austin Senators, though he was a 17-year-old playing in the Texas ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-6-2018

Toledo News-Bee, March 6, 1918:

The Cleveland Indians arrived [in New Orleans] on Wednesday without bats, uniforms, or trunks. Their equipment is somewhere in Dixie. The players and baggage traveled on the same train from Cleveland to Cincinnati. Then they parted company. Manager Fohl ordered first practice on Wednesday, and planned to borrow equipment.

I’ve never played professionally, but I imagine it would be more difficult to practice without bats or baseballs.

Yankees need to stop messing with their star reliever | New York Post

So the whole premise of the article is pretty much bologna.

Boone pretty much solidified Green’s bullpen future when he said after the game, “I think probably our preference is to eventually move him back [to the bullpen], but we want to at least be in that position should something come up.”

The move back to the pen would be “pretty soon,” Boone said.

That would be the smart move.

Mallee’s numbers tell story about Phillies’ bats

Better hitting through data.

“Our whole philosophy of selective, aggressive hitting is our guys are going to attack pitches they can drive early in the count and take everything else within the strike zone, even if it’s a strike,” Mallee said. “Wherever their strengths are, they’re going to look in there. If the ball shows up there they’re going to swing, but if it doesn’t that’s how they work counts as opposed to taking pitches. We’re looking for something to slug until the count tells us we ...

Eric Hosmer says lots of ‘red flags’ during grim offseason: ‘Something is wrong with it’

He got paid. Maybe the other guys aren’t really worth their asking prices.

Nats send lefty Romero home from spring camp | MiLB.com News

More trouble for Romero. No details provided.

Cardinals lock in DeJong with 6-year extension worth $26 million

It’s one of the largest ever for a player with less than a full year of service time. The deal also includes two option years and a total possible value of $51.5 million, confirmed a source. The options are both club options and they are worth $12.5 million for 2023 and $15 million for 2024.

Pitcher batting 8th? Mets manager reveals his in-game strategies | New York Post

Starting pitchers are pretty much finished at 100 pitches.

“It’s a case-by-case basis: What has he done his last couple of outings?” Callaway said. “We have to take that into account. Another thing we really have to take into account this season is the amount of innings guys have thrown in the past. To expect them to go out and throw 110 pitches, 110, 110, all of a sudden their workload is going to go way up. One hundred is alarming, and then we will start, ‘We’ve got to get ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-5-2018

Washington Times, March 5, 1918:

The Red Sox are to share Braves Field with George Stallings’ National League club this year. Work will be started on a new clubhouse within a few days. Fenway Park, situated in the Fenway, now a handsome residence section, is today worth twice as much as it was when the American League moved there from Huntington avenue a few years ago.
...
The overhead costs of Braves Field have caused President Haughton and his associates to extend an invitation to the Red Sox ...

Jon Lester using new approach on throws to 1B | MLB.com

The Cubs’ Jon Lester is trying a new Chicago Bulls-themed approach to deal with his struggles to throw to first base.

“In the words of [coach Brian Butterfield], we’re going to use the Jordan-to-Pippen bounce,” Lester said Sunday, referring to Bulls legends Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. “I don’t care what it looks like, I don’t care if it bounces 72 times over there, an out’s an out.”

OTP 3 March 2018: Texas Wesleyan baseball coach fired after rejecting Colorado prospect over politics

A college baseball coach in Texas was fired Thursday partly because of an email he sent to a high school prospect in Colorado. Texas Wesleyan University’s coach told the senior that Colorado players have failed drug tests in the past and the university doesn’t take a chance on students from the state.

At a Thursday morning press conference, University President Fred Slabach announced coach Mike Jeffcoat was fired because of the remarks and for violating National Association of Intercollegiate ...

Steven Matz: Roughed up Sunday

In a post-game interview, Matz asserted that his struggles were not health related, but simply a matter of him missing his spots high. Even though it’s just a spring game, this is a bit concerning for prospective fantasy owners given the young left-hander’s struggles last year.

Bad new about Rusty Staub

The beloved Mets icon and New York philanthropist, who survived a midflight heart attack from Ireland to JFK Airport in October 2015, is again gravely ill in a West Palm Beach, Fla., hospital where he has been suffering from a staph infection that has led to kidney failure for nearly a month now.

Jose Canseco turned teammates onto steroids

This is literally an economics research paper by actual scientists.

This paper examines the issue of whether workers learn productive skills from their co-workers, even if those skills are unethical. Specifically, we estimate whether Jose Canseco, a star baseball player in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, affected the performance of his teammates by introducing them to steroids. Using panel data, we show that a player’s performance increases significantly after they played with Jose Canseco. After ...

We X-Rayed Some MLB Baseballs. Here’s What We Found.

On top of the fact that the balls became bouncier as the core itself changed, previous research at FiveThirtyEight showed that they also became less air resistant. The decrease in drag is probably a result of a smaller, slicker baseball with lower seams. The change in air resistance could add an additional 5 feet to the travel distance of a fly ball. Combine all these factors together — a lighter, more compact baseball with tighter seams and more bounce — and the ball could fly as much as ...

What Is the Essential Baseball Film?

The Kid From Left Field?

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-2-2018

Bridgeport Times, March 2, 1918:

Mr. George Perritt of Shreveport, La., right-handed pitcher for the New York Giants, says he’s through. No more baseball for him. He will not play for John J. McGraw in 1918, and never, never, never will bend another outshoot over the old pan at the Polo Grounds. So he says.
...
[Perritt:] “It won’t do any good for McGraw to come here to sign me to anything—unless he wants to buy an automobile…I’m through with baseball—through forever. I’m selling automobiles ...

Royals fans remember Lucas Duda from 2015 World Series, now he’s replacing Eric Hosmer

Ironically, Duda likely will replace Hosmer as the Royals’ first baseman. According to FanGraphs, Duda has 7.4 Wins Above Replacement since the start of the 2014 season, while Hosmer has a 7.5 WAR.

After the Royals won the Series-clinching Game 5, Royals first base coach Rusty Kuntz said, “Bless his heart, Duda. He’s a good bat.”

Does Madison Bumgarner Deserve to Be MLB’s Next $30M-Per-Year Pitcher?

Mets360: The sweet irony of Lucas Duda

Something akin to trading Ralph Branca for Bobby Thomson in about 1953 or so…

Inside Baseball Notes | Svelte Schwarber surprising | FanRag Sports

Heyman is a great reporter. Maybe, though, he should skip the analysis.

A conversation with the Angels’ Justin Upton: On hitting, stats, and the end of free-agent courting – The Athletic

Here’s an extremely interesting interview with Justin Upton. I doubt his perspective is unique.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-1-2018

El Paso Herald, March 1, 1918:

Harry Frazee, Jr., 15 years old, is an enterprising school boy. Last spring he wrote to his father, president of the Red Sox, for half a dozen new balls. Frazee, Sr., paid $1.25 each for them and shipped them immediately. Several weeks later he received another urgent request for a second half dozen, which also were sent with a letter asking what had been done with the first batch. Back came a reply which read:

“I sold the first half dozen at a quarter apiece. ...